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-- Former Egyptian slave girl has new life
Former Egyptian slave girl has new life
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/...l-children.html
Former Egyptian slave girl has new life
Published: March 31, 2010
By GREG HARDESTY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
IRVINE � Shyima Hall had only a few minutes to talk.
Class was starting soon, and after class she had to head to work at a mall.
"I'm OK now," Hall, 20, says in a telephone interview. "Sometimes it's hard to talk about it."
Seven years ago, Hall was a frightened, confused and miserable 13-year-old plucked by federal authorities from a life of slavery and squalor in the unlikeliest of places: Irvine.
Sold by her parents when she was 11, the Egyptian-born Hall spent nearly two years living on a bare, dirty mattress in a windowless garage on a tree-lined street of opulent, Mediterranean-style homes.
There, under the noses of her neighbors on Pacific Grove in Northpark, Shyima worked 20-hour days as a domestic servant to an Egyptian couple and their five children.
She was denied schooling and trips to the doctor and dentist. She was not allowed to sit down to meals with the family. She was forced to wash her own clothes by hand in a bucket.
The family called her "stupid girl," and worse, instead of using her name.
Now, Hall is a busy and ambitious college student who might use her difficult past as motivation to become someone special.
Among the people who rescued her in April 2003 were special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Hall hasn't forgotten them � and remembers one man in particular.
Trafficking in children and adults for commercial sex and forced labor is a growing problem in Orange County.
Since 2004, the Public Law Center, a founding partner of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, has handled 89 trafficking cases. Right now, there are 29 open cases of forced servitude, many of which include adults or children who are much like Hall, who couldn't speak English when she was rescued.
"We have open cases right now in Irvine, in Newport Beach, Crystal Cove � very wealthy communities," said Julie Greenwald, an immigration attorney for the Public Law Center.
Shyima was 8 when she was sold. Having 10 other children, her parents needed the money.
Her captors, a wealthy Cairo couple, relocated to Irvine. And when Shyima was 10, they hired a businessman who, in 2001, flew with her to Los Angeles, telling immigration officers that he was accompanying his "adoptive daughter" on a trip to a theme park.
Shyima had no idea that her parents sold her for $30 a month for what was supposed to be 10 years.
Shyima's captors took away her passport and immediately put her to work.
Eventually, a neighbor noticed that the petite, dark-haired girl next door wasn't going to school like the other five children in the house. Instead, the little girl was doing chores late into the night.
The neighbor made an anonymous call to authorities.
Child welfare workers responded. So did ICE agents, whose work helped lead to the arrests of Abdel Nasser Youssef Ibrahim, 46, and Amal Ahmed Ewis-Abd El Motelib, 44, launching Orange County's first federal prosecution of a human-trafficking case.
Ibrahim and Motelib eventually pleaded guilty to four felonies. At their sentencing in May 2006, they told the judge they thought they had not broken any laws but apologized about how Shyima was treated.
Among the upper classes in some parts of Africa and the Middle East, domestic servitude is an illegal but common practice.
Ibrahim was sentenced to three years in prison. Motelib got 22 months. Their children, ages 10 to 18, agreed to leave the country.
Motelib has fulfilled her sentence and has been deported. Ibrahim currently is in ICE custody awaiting deportation.
After her rescue, Shyima faced many challenges, in addition to not speaking English. She was behind in school. She also had a lot of pent-up anger about her ordeal.
And, she was fearful of the people trying to help her � Shyima had been told that the police would do bad things to her if she went to them for help.
Shyima was put into foster care, but it took three foster families until she finally felt at home. The Hall family, of Riverside County, eventually adopted Shyima, making her the eldest of their six children, who include other foster kids.
Helping Shyima at every turn has been Mark Abend, an ICE supervisory special agent who spearheaded the investigation that led to the conviction of her captors.
"He's like a father to me," Hall says. "We talk all the time. He's always in my life."
Her connection with Abend could continue.
Shyima is in her third year at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, studying business. But, after college, her plan isn't to get into business � it's to become an ICE agent, just like Abend.
It's a highly competitive career. Last year, about 7,500 people applied to become ICE agents and, of those, only about one in three passed a written test to make it to an interview. And of those 2,500 who were interviewed, only about 600 � 8 percent of the original applicant pool � became special agents.
Hall is determined to be in that select group.
She's been laying the groundwork, participating in the Explorer police program for the last three years. And, in the past year, she's started speaking publicly about her ordeal, to ICE agents and community groups.
"A lot of people aren't aware of the problem of human trafficking here in the U.S.," she says. "But I experienced it myself. I have a real passion for this kind of work."
Shyima sometimes has mixed feelings about being the young face of human trafficking.
"A lot of people, when they learn about me, are like, 'You poor thing!'" she says. "But I don't want people to feel sorry for me.
"I'm going to school, I've a good a good job. I've got a great family. I'm loving life. I'm really good right now."
Abend said that from the start, he sensed strength in Shyima.
"I'm in admiration to see where she's at now, after all the adversity she's been through," he said.
"All along, I saw that she was a fighter and a survivor."
is that about Bas ? if not i'm not reading untill you provide a cor version
| quote: |
| Originally posted by stren is that about Bas ? |
there are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in history
"Former Egyptian slave girl has new life"
"Seven years ago, Hall was a frightened, confused and miserable 13-year-old plucked by federal authorities from a life of slavery and squalor in the unlikeliest of places: Irvine."
"Sold by her parents when she was 11, the Egyptian-born Hall"
"Trafficking in children and adults for commercial sex and forced labor is a growing problem in Orange County."
"Right now, there are 29 open cases of forced servitude, many of which include adults or children who are much like Hall"
Is "servitude" the PC term for slavery now? It still doesn't dampen the severity of slavery though.
""We have open cases right now in Irvine, in Newport Beach, Crystal Cove � very wealthy communities," said Julie Greenwald, an immigration attorney for the Public Law Center."
"Among the upper classes in some parts of Africa and the Middle East, domestic servitude is an illegal but common practice."
Common practice?!
"Ibrahim was sentenced to three years in prison. Motelib got 22 months."
Is 3-year prison sentence the price to pay for modern day slavery? Good job America. You've certainly learned from your mistakes of the past in US history. /sarcasm
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Sunsnail there are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in history |
???
FORMER?! Well we'll have to fix that won't we 
They should have had to do more time IMO. They robbed her of her childhood... they should lose at least 10 years of their lives in jail, the bastards.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Theresa They should have had to do more time IMO. They robbed her of her childhood... they should lose at least 10 years of their lives in jail, the bastards. |
+2. 3 years is a joke.
in 100 years all white people will be slaves. get ready honkys
Where can I get me one of these slaves that you speak of?
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| Originally posted by jonSun in 100 years all white people will be slaves. get ready honkys |
$30/ month for 10 years.... You can't even finance a Vespa for that. I'm ordering two, anybody got the number for an Egyptian dealer?
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| Originally posted by Moral Hazard $30/ month for 10 years.... You can't even finance a Vespa for that. I'm ordering two, anybody got the number for an Egyptian dealer? |
Middle Eastern people in LA are still backwards.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Sunsnail there are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in history |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by ASOT450 Middle Eastern people in LA are still backwards. |
bas is a slave....
to fashion.
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| Originally posted by Ian lol you had to make an alt to insult bas anonymously? |
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| Originally posted by ASOT450 Who is bas? and bas lives in LA? I was talking about the people mentioned in that link. |
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| Originally posted by leph555 |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by ASOT450 ? |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by R.j. ??? |
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